“Fathers,
both you and the English are white, we live in a Country between;
therefore the Land belongs to neither one nor t’other.”
— Chief
Tanaghrisson
 |
French and Indian War provincial militia
re-enactors march forth at Fort Frederick. |
I don’t expect many Americans to have much
familiarity with the
French and Indian War (1754–1763); Europeans
might know it as one theater in the larger Seven Years War
(1756–1763) which some historians consider the first true “world
war.” It’s an interesting period in American colonial history.
Major European powers continue to stake claims to lands in the New
World, with the British and French clashing primarily on the
frontiers in New England and the mid-Atlantic. British colonists
remain subject to the crown, yet, being separated from their
governing body by several months’ treacherous voyage over the
ocean, have cultivated a sense of self-sufficiency bordering on
entitled independence. Over my years of reading and playing games
about it, I’ve come to realize it sets up many of the issues over
which Americans fought for their independence from Great Britain and
highlights many issues we still face. One can more easily investigate
the French and Indian War through movies, books, and games to gain a
greater understanding of the conflict’s many aspects and outcomes
that influenced the American War of Independence...and beyond.
